During the 2011 excavation campaign, the team continued to excavate within the area extended at the end of the previous season. The three main objectives were, first, to expose the late Roman and early Imperial walls covered by a post-occupational layer of building debris; second, to establish the phasing of the site’s stratigraphy; and, third, to establish the type of the site’s final occupation.

For the most part, all three objectives were met: occupation layers were exposed across the site, and the presence of early ‘Forum Ware’ in an abandonment layer below the debris indicated that the latter (amongst which some fragments of the same type were also found) was probably formed during the early Mediaeval period, in what appear to have been three (and, in some parts of the site, four) distinct depositional activities. By contrast, the final layer of occupation contained some diagnostic sherds of late sigillata, which confirms our previous assumption that the site was occupied before the Mediaeval period. At the same time, however, it also lowers the date of the final occupation significantly, which some scholars had previously argued to have ended during or shortly after the late third century AD.

Yet, some uncertainty remains with regard to the site’s final use: while the interpretation of the southern room (excavated in 2009) as a bath-house provisionally stands, the function of the floor in the area adjacent to it is not entirely clear, although, as the presence of shallow, drain- and basin-like features cut into the hardened surface suggests, it may have involved water or other fluids. In addition, one built feature could be interpreted as a cistern-mouth: as this was over-built by a wall during the final phase of the site’s occupation, however, it is currently impossible to define its function for certain. Moreover, none of the very few artefacts found in the occupational layers contain any further evidence relating to the question of the site’s use, and only a further extension of the area during the next season can lead to more clarity. Although the quality of the floors and walls do not permit deeper excavation in most parts of the site, it will, in addition, be possible, to excavate several key-holes which should throw further light on the previous history of occupation.